At this point, what should my strategy be? I've emailed almost every boutique IB I can, and nothing. I've also emailed a ton of other financial services firms, and still nothing. Not sure what to do right now.
I am looking to break into investment banking next summer but have nothing for this summer
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Look for others internships in finance or accounting. Don't waste the summer, and find opportunities to practice your skills.
Says the dumbass who hasn't worked in 2 years. Maybe you should take your own advice, prestige fuck.
You probably want to fine-tune your resume. That's what I did. I got almost no responses before I polished my resume. Later I got 3 interviews and landed a buy side M&A boutique gig. Don't get frustrated. There are still opportunities out there. Check your school's career website. Ask your counselors. Networking, etc.
Or if eventually you don't get any internships, try to do something that's related to finance (take online accounting classes, do WSO financial modeling courses, read books, etc.)
Good luck
A decent amount of people respond, and say my resume is impressive but they already hired so I think the main issue is that most firms already hired.
What type of firms should I target now? PE shops? wealth management?
Get anything at this point, use LinkedIn., go work for a startup (use Angel List), get an offer on the table before getting picky
Hi there,
While finding something now is going to be challenging you are going to have to get more proactive.
You do not necessarily have to go for Summer Intership schemes which are highly competitive, include rotations and are probably already filled.
I would recommend that you spin it into an off-cycle summer placement where you will be assigned to one desk for the whole summer and won't be part of the whole summer scheme.
IB desks always require intern anyways so while the desks will have interns through the summer scheme there might be last minute needs that pop up and THAT is where I see the opportunity.
Contact as many HRs and Associates (Analysts have no decision power in this) as you can specifying that you are looking for a permanent desk placement. Maybe shoot for the teams that are not in popular sectors, maybe Utilities etc...Teams like Oil & Gas, Financials or Technology will be full of interns already.
Use all the HR contacts you already have, send emails but also CALL UP as you don't have the time to wait for an email reply.
Make sure that your CV is also BANG ON.
I hope this helps.
Best regards, Jonathan Founder of IBMentor
Hit up unpaid search fund internships
When did you start looking? I remember for my sophomore summer I started actively looking in late February/early March and eventually got a couple of offers in late April/early May. It was an absolute slog though. I sent a ton of cold emails with a minimal response rate.
I think it's going to be hard to cold email at this point. I sent the majority of my cold emails that year in March/early April and most firms didn't respond/told me that they had already gone through the recruiting process. You need to probably apply online (even though this is likely difficult as well) or find an internal connection to get something. Good Luck.
I started pretty late, i put my eggs in one basket, and it fell apart. How important is sophomore summer? Can i just take on a random internship?
I think it's quite important. I went to a target and wasn't a URM/female candidate and my parents didn't work as an VP/MD at a BB, meaning I lacked an initial "hook" in the interview/application process. Getting finance internships / networking was my means of trying to get my foot in the door initially.
I ended up deciding to not pursue IB after my soph summer (wasn't something I enjoyed), so it's obviously different for me, but most of the people I know who are in IB did something productive the summer before. This doesn't necessarily mean an IB SA gig, but many had name brands on their resume.
This isn't to say all is lost for you, but I think it's much harder to land a top IB gig without really prominent internship experience / URM / major connections. There are very few positions for the countless many who are qualified (because there really aren't any qualifications). I would say try to find something at this point because something is better than nothing.
> What should my strategy be?
Shit or get off the pot.
Maybe you should just give up if you have really done everything. Otherwise, keep going.
Still no summer job, what now? (Originally Posted: 04/07/2016)
I go to a target school in Canada, its been quite a long recruiting session for me. I had 10+ interviews this year but I haven't been able to land an offer and now its getting close to the summer and I am starting to panic. I have been cold-emailing like crazy (100+ emails) in the past 4 days, but no one is replying or they are not hiring. I am out of ideas, and don't know what to do anymore. I have no more connections that I can leverage, everyone that I could possibly talk to in my personal network I have talked to, and they have helped me as much as they can and there is nothing left they can do. I am not an individual to give up, but despair is starting to set in for me.
are you a junior or sophomore?
junior
Emails take time to respond to so i wouldn't panic yet. I would keep emailing and start widening the net. Forget your preferred city, pick a city where you have a relative that will let you spend the summer with them rent-free, in case you need to take an unpaid internship. Also look at doing some business dev/financial analyst work for startups (building a deck, model, etc.) and try to leverage experience from that. This shouldn't be too hard - there should be startups on campus.
You're going about this the wrong way. Your problem is not getting interviews- it's doing well in the interviews. Your first step needs to be figuring out why. I would sign up for WSO mock interviews or see if any alumni will help you.
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